TRUMP: "[Haley] has been at the UN right from the beginning, & worked w/us on the campaign...it has been a long time, very intense & she told me probably six months ago, 'you know maybe at the end of a 2-year period, but at the end of the year I want to take a little time off.'" HALEY: "I'm such a lucky girl to have been able to lead the state that raised me and to serve a country I love so very much has really been a blessing, and I want to thank you for that... the US Is strong again. The US is strong in a way it should make all Americans proud."

Trump is about to deliver a speech to a gathering of police chiefs. Follow me for a video thread. Trump on Hurricane Michael: "It's looking like it could be a very big one... good luck."

TRUMP on Rod Rosenstein: "I actually have a good relationship other than, there's been no collusion folks!" TRUMP attacks Democrats over Kavanaugh process: "The way they tortured him and his family, I thought it was a disgrace. It was one of the most disgraceful performances I've ever seen."

He then lies and says "there was no corroboration of any kind" for Dr Ford's accusation.

Trump is about to deliver a speech in Topeka. Follow me for a video thread. TRUMP: "I want to thank our incredible Republican senators for refusing to back down in the face of the Democrats' shameless campaign of political & personal destruction... radical Democrats launched a disgraceful campaign to resist & demolish right from the beginning."

Ahead of @SenatorCollins' speech on the Senate floor, protesters chant "believe women!" from the gallery COLLINS is using her speech to criticize opponents of Kavanaugh as "frenzied," "spreading outright falsehoods," and representing "special interest groups."

.@ChuckGrassley, who is struggling to read a statement on the Senate floor, baselessly accuses @SenFeinstein of "shameful" handling of Dr Ford's accusation because she didn't violate Ford's wishes and make an issue of it immediately Grassley flat out lies, claims Ford's accusations are "refuted."

President Trump is about to deliver a speech in Rochester, Minnesota. Follow me for a video thread. TRUMP smears DEMOCRATS: "They want to erase our gains and plunge our country into a nightmare of gridlock, poverty, chaos, and frankly, crime. Because that's what comes with it."

Crowd responds with "Drain the swamp!" chants.

Trump then prompts crowd to boo the media.

old. white. men. Grassley is yelling

Kavanaugh's Yale roommate, Jamie Roche, on CNN: "I saw him when he was vomiting in bedroom & bathroom...I don't know how you define blacking out, & I would say those things are consistent w/blacking out."

Roche adds that he has specific memories of K telling him he blacked out. ROCHE on KAVANAUGH'S testimony downplaying his drinking & professing ignorance ignorance about sexual slang: "What was shocking to me was getting up under oath & w/straight face saying these things were true when he knew, & when a lot of people knew, that that was not the case."

On CNN, White House spox @RajShah45 says FBI "contacted" 10 people as part of its investigation of Kavanaugh. Adds that senators will be "comfortable voting to confirm" him. CNN: Did the White House puts limits on FBI looking into Kavanaugh's drinking?

WHITE HOUSE SPOX SHAH: This man has gone through six FBI investigations!

C: But now there's new info.

S: I would question the veracity of it... he says he likes beer.

.@PressSec begins the first White House press briefing in nearly a month by announcing Trump will be donating his 2018 second quarter salary to the Small Business Administration. #hero .@AmbJohnBolton announces that he is "announcing that the president has decided that the United States will withdraw from the optional protocol to dispute resolution to the Vienna convention on diplomatic relations."

The drums of war can be heard in the distance.

On Fox News, @KellyannePolls uses lies to dismiss Trump mocking Dr Ford.

"She still has no corroborating for her testimony," she says, falsely. "The president is pointing out factual inconsistencies." Beyond parody - Conway cites Twitter likes on one of Trump's tweets to downplay polling showing how unpopular Kavanaugh is

"If you look at the president's tweet from last Thursday after Judge Kavanaugh testified, he got over 300,000 likes within 24 hours. That's a lot of likes."

LOL -- Fox News cut in to Trump's speech just long enough to hear the president claim that Kavanaugh "has no problems" because "they've never taken him out of restaurants." Here's the president threatening to beat up @JoeBiden

At beginning of his speech to an electrical contractors convention, Trump is given hardhat as a gift, but jokes that he doesn't want to put it on because it'll mess his hair. Then he brags about how much money he's given to the group. Trump tosses Arnold Schwarzenegger under the bus, notes that 'The Apprentice' was much more successful when he was the star

TRUMP: "I think Judge Kavanaugh is doing pretty well it seems to me over the last 24 hours. A lot is going to depend on what comes back from the FBI in terms of their additional investigation... the FBI is working very hard and let's see what happens." TRUMP hits media for not focusing more on what Kavanaugh "has done over the last 30 years."

"You're going back to high school, going back to college... what has he done over the last 30 years? He has been spectacular."

Jared Kushner has a spot of honor for Trump's trade remarks TRUMP: "It's really great to see everybody on this beautiful, beautiful day in Washington DC. Some people say the swamp, but I will not say that today. I refuse."

CHRIS WALLACE: Has the WH limited which people FBI can interview as they investigate Kavanaugh?

@PressSec: We're not micromanaging!

CW: But did the WH give the FBI a list of people investigators can talk to?

SHS: Not that I'm aware of. But if we did, it's the Senate's fault. Sanders claims Ford's assault allegation against Kavanaugh isn't "about emotion- this is about facts. The facts all end on Brett Kavanaugh's side"

"It appears something happened to this woman...the big question is, was that Kavanaugh?... you can easily come away & say it wasn't"

TAPPER: Has WH lawyer McGahn directed FBI not to look into Swetnick's allegations against Kavanaugh?

@KellyannePolls: We're not involved in that way.

T: But did McGahn say, 'you can interview these witnesses, but not others?'

K: Actually, I don't know, I haven't talked to him. Conway pushes the crackpot 'mistaken identity' theory that Ford was assaulted, but not by Kavanaugh.

@jaketapper responds by saying, "It's possible."

(Ford said under oath that she's 100 percent sure Kavanaugh was her assailant.)

Trump will be delivering a speech at a rally in Wheeling, West Virginia at the top of the hour. Follow me for a video thread. Here we go

Republicans vote down @SenBlumenthal's motion to subpoena Mark Judge, the one alleged eyewitness to Kavanaugh's assault on Ford. They're perpetrating a coverup. .@ChuckGrassley falsely claims that Dr Ford's testimony has been "refuted."

"The existing evidence, including the statement of three alleged eyewitnesses named by Dr. Ford, refutes Dr. Ford's version of the facts," he says.

(There's only one eyewitness & he hasn't testified.)

.@LindseyGrahamSC is on Fox News still pushing the mistaken identity theory of the assault on Dr Ford: "I'm 100 percent confident that Brett Kavanaugh didn't do this. I think something did happen to Ms Ford, but after her testimony, I don't know who took her to the party." Echoing comments he made during his demonic rant at yesterday's hearing, Graham claims Democrats "could give a damn about Dr Ford."